Reign of Fire - The Novel
by Writing1sLife
Summary: Its just another ordinary day. Then something is disturbed in the depths of the earth. Years pass, and the Earth is claimed by fire breathing legends of the past. And now, one man will protect those survivors that he can, and another shall lead them to victory. If they should fail to eradicate the source of the threat, Earth shall burn


"Smoke"

Just another day, like any other day, almost. Truth be told it couldn't be more dreary or worse with grey, almost ashen, skies and things were about to get even worse; especially if your name was Quinn. London was something of a dreary city in appearance, even more so depending upon the sky, and today broadcasted nothing but gloom and depression. It was Friday which was normally supposed to be a happy thing, unless your name was Quinn. Heading to where your mother worked was normally a cheerful thing to, about the most cheerful thing left in the world really, on any day, but not today, especially because his name was Quinn.

He had spent a full hour at one of London's fountains surrounded by an endless cloud of pigeons that settled only to rise then settle again. Never were they still, always somewhere in the vicinity of the fountain were they taking to the air, especially around Quinn's reluctant feet that slowly turned from the fountain and began the monotonous, undesirable, task of carrying him to the construction site. His mother was an engineer but the pay was good and she was happy; it paid in spades, but it was just enough in the end and that was already weighing more heavily today because of what had happened.

He was given friendly greeting by some of the workers who knew him by heart while others kidded with him.

"Hullo Quinn," stated one thin, wiry man pale of skin but long of hair.

"Morning Quinn. How's it going mate?" called another with an Australian accent.

It was all in fun and he knew them rather well since they were the only true friends he had in this world especially on holidays. He gave them the smile they knew to expect but was not smiling inside. When he approached the elevator, which was just rising, he noticed someone he did not wish to talk to especially because he knew that he was going to easily see through him because he was like a second father to him.

"Oi, oi, oi, come on now," he stated upon Quinn turning away hoping perhaps to buy some distance between the inevitable. "Not having one yourself then?" he asked upon proffering an unlit cigarette to Quinn and the boy shook his head.

"I'm tryin' to cut back," he stated with a weak smile that did nothing to hide the truth.

"You heard from the school then didn't ya?" Quinn looked at him with hooded eyes. "Down ya go."

Quinn pushed the button and began the descent into the artificially lit darkness of the shaft that slowly descended out of sight of the sun and into the earth. His mother was at the bottom readying the cans of beer for the guys as they made ready for the departure into the weekend. Quinn looked on quietly through the grill of the descending elevator and gave a sigh as he braced himself and made ready for what was to come.

"Good night lads! Cheers." These were the common exchanges as the men passed by covered in soot and black dust but with teeth flashing white against the black environment as a testament to the fact that they were happy.

"Oi, Karen, here's the new recruit; all fresh and young and handsome to do our jobs in half the time," joked one of the workers as Quinn exited the elevator.

"The employment office is up top young man," his mother stated with a smile and laugh as she noticed her son's arrival. She gave him a kiss and then pulled back her eyes narrowing. "Have you been smoking?"

"No, I told you, I only smoke when I have been drinking. You know that." He made the statement with a forced smile. His mother had kissed his forehead so she might have caught a whiff of smoke but he had not smoked today at all. His mother asked him what was wrong; he could not keep it hidden from his eyes nor his tone of voice. How long could he avoid this confrontation?

He quietly went over to the table where the plans were laid as placed his backpack down. "You have something you want to show me do you not?" He took out a letter hesitantly and then handed it to her. While she read it he fiddled with the cigarette lighter he always carried, waiting for the hammer to fall. "You do know what this says. The scholarship was ultimately worth three thousand dollars a year and we do not have that kind of money in our possession."

"Well, maybe we could ask dad to pay," Quin replied with a small tinge of hope, only to clamp his mouth and chew himself out mentally for blurting out such a comment. "Sorry," he breathed to his mom looking away. She reached out and gently patted his shoulder. She carried so much weight around for the both of them.

"Karen," Tom, her assistant had walked up quietly and called back to her, "We have a problem down at number four. Jeff says that he, and I quote, "hit a void," though I have no idea what he is talking about." Tom walked off sourly shaking his head.

Karen took one last look at her boy and squeezed his shoulder gently. "We will find a way through all of this. I promise you. It's not the first time we have had to be resourceful."

The massive drill noisily whirred to a halt; Jeff examined the hole with a light and several uttered profanities before he noticed Quinn standing behind him. They exchanged some unpleasant remarks as neither he nor Jeff liked each other. Of all the workers down here on the force, Jeff was the least liked, and he gave Quinn a look before daring him to take the flashlight and have "a wee look" inside the hole carved into the rock. Disgusted, Quinn removed the flashlight from the man's soot-blackened hands and began to work his way in.

The other side proved to be quite the surprise, not unlike the experience of Aladdin in his cave or Alibaba finding the treasure of the forty thieves. One should have been met by rock like on the other side, but this was no uncut, rough, black rock; this was a cave of smooth, glistening rock. It was not the kind of a riverbed or stream polished by water, but rather something else, and its appearance was akin to that of scales on a lizard or alligator.

"Wicked," breathed Quinn shining his light all over the cavern which appeared to glisten and shine like something from the imagination of a child listening to a fairy tale. There were no jewels or magic lamp, but the cave still seemed to have some hypnotic quality to it. One could almost fancy one heard it breathing, that one was entering into the belly of some great, massive beast. He walked along observing how strange the cave looked; there were enormous columns, stalagmites and stalactites, and the ceiling was so high an elephant could easily stand in the place.

Quinn moved over to examine one of the columns more closely and felt almost like a tourist standing next to a giant redwood because it was so huge. He brushed his hand over it marveling how smooth it was despite its appearance. A whooshing noise and burst of heat made Quinn whirl around. There was a phosphorescent-green puddle on the floor that was burning and more drops of liquid landed near his feet and these also burst into flame as they landed. Quinn backed up in horror and followed the drizzling stream of the burning substance upwards with the flashlight.

The sound of deep inhalation and exhalation was now audible to Quinn's ears. The beam of the light froze on a ledge where a large, horrific form draped in membranous material lay. As he stared dumbfounded a serpentine head was revealed by the parting curtain. A jet of liquid was spat into his face with a loud hiss. Quinn furiously rubbed his stinging eyes and took one last look before racing from where he had fallen back to the entrance. He felt no pain as he scrambled over the rock, just terror. Racing back to where his mother was in heated discussion with the other two men he yanked her around. "Mom. There's something in there. There's something in the hole!"

His mother swore at Jeff and escorted Quinn off while he just called back unapologetically of how conditions were unsafe and it was not his fault. Tom viciously grabbed hold of Jeff and drug him back to the hole, determined that the man should make reprimands by proving just what this "void" of his really was. The thing that really hacked everyone off was how he had sent a child into a place that was dangerous. As Quinn protested about how they needed to get out Karen drug him over to the emergency station. "We need to do this fast," she told him desperately removing one of the bottles and quickly setting to work on cleaning his red-rimmed eyes and face of whatever was on it. "Open your eyes," she instructed, "C'mon, open them," as she poured water over his face and already-reddening eyes. What in heaven's name had done this to her son?

Jeff sat down with the map near the drill and Tom snatched it out of his hands with an oath. "You're going in there and showing me just what this _void_ of yours is," Tom growled. This time there would be no walking away. It would be a miracle if Jeff was not fired for the simple fact that he had the gall to encourage a boy to do something so reckless. Jeff lit a match to light a cigarette but a strong puff of air put it out. It came from the hole behind him. He turned and his eyes widened in shock.

An explosion accompanied by flames blasted out of the tunnel jolting Karen's attention from tending to Quinn. She seized her son and covered him as they raced for the elevator feeling the heat on their backs. "Mom there was something in there!" he yelled to be heard over the noise as his mom got the elevator going. The flames from the tunnel had receded before bursting out into the rest of the shaft's bottom.

His mom hugged him to herself protectively and desperately pressed the button to ascend urging the elevator to climb faster. A roar from something of unknown proportions caused both to hunker into the rear of the elevator. "Mom…!" A massive form exploded up from the sea of flames as they climbing upward and landed with a crash on the scaffolding. Quinn screamed as the face of a massive creature thrust into view. The thing, whatever it was, let go of the scaffold causing it to shake violently and with a loud cry and the sound of rushing wind it was gone up the shaft and away. Silence reigned.

"Mum? Mum…? Mom?" He received no reply. The smoke cleared enough to show that the cage had collapsed violently and crushed her skull. The boy simply stood there, numbly staring as smoke filled the air and dust drifted all around the blackened earth.


End file.
